My New Jersey Experience

Friday August 28, 1998

My Aunt Yvonne and I left the Jackson airport at 7:20 am, headed to Newark via Cincinatti. The flights were both nice and arrived on time. I was very nervous since this was my first time to fly, but it was well worth any jitters.

We arrived in Newark at 12:40. My first impression of New Jersey was an arial view and I could hear Dave saying, "Look, there's New Jersey. You can smell it."

We got our rental car and were able to leave the airport without much trouble, but we did have a bit of trouble getting on the right section of the Turnpike. After a brief detour through "lovely" downtown Newark, we were more than happy to finally find ourselves headed south toward Eatontown.

Some of the first signs I saw were for Woodbridge, I didn't get a chance to see Richie's hometown. I was told no one could figure out where Richie's old house was anyway. The New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway were both easier to navigate than I expected.

We stayed at a dump of a motel where my pals Dawn and Pam were staying as well. They were my ride to the party and my tour guides for a wonderful trip through all the Bon Jovi sights of NJ. Still, we got there with just enough time to check in and for me to find Pam and Dawn and get ready for the party. Pam, Dawn, and their friend Susan and I left about 4:15. Since there was a wreck, we didn't make it to Fairway Manor until 4:45, but we were there in plenty of time since all the seats were assigned. Only I wish we had been closer to the front of the line because there were bees flying around I was scared to death of being stung. I am very allergic and I didn't want to have spent all that money to come to New Jersey to wind up in the hospital rather than at a party.

Soon, my pal Cheryl from New York lined up close behind us. I saw her and spoke and we were thrilled to finally meet each other. A little while later, a cameraman approached Pam and me and asked where we were from. I felt like an idiot on camera, and know I sounded like one too. The worst part is that he asked us to sing a song and Dawn suggested "Bad Name," so we all belted out the chorus. He wanted another, so I suggested we do something from this decade and specifically something from Destination and Mr. Cameraman suggested we sing "Janie," and started us out with that one. Unfortunately, I was the only one who remembered the words, so we did the most pitiful rendition ever. Trust me, if I weren't bad enough as a solo, throw in a few parts of utter confusion and you have an ugly mess. But, it's hard enough to think of song titles, much less the lyrics when you're put on the spot like that. I know every intelligible word to every song Jon has ever recorded, but I was almost blank with a microphone stuck in my face. Man... we suck! The Spice Girls have no competition from us.

Later in line, I was talking to a complete stranger who all of a sudden says, "Becky?!" I said, "Yeah," and she said, "I'm Loretta!" She's my new pal from South Dakota, a really nice person. She recognized my voice, specifically, my accent. I guess "y'all" gave me away.

I wound up at table 9, which seemed like it would have been pretty good. We were right next to one of the two head tables and right in front of the stage... not that it helped later on. Anyway, Cheryl wound up at the same table, but Dawn, Pam, Loretta, and Susan were elsewhere. It was great to hang out with Cheryl though. She's really sweet, funny, and a lot of fun to be around.

Father Bob was MC for the night and he brought out Mrs. B. for the welcome. She was uncharacteristically emotional and couldn't make it through her speech. Later Mr. B. joined her. After the welcome, we were treated to 11 new songs Jon had recorded for his (at the time) next solo album. I do hope some of the songs wind up on the next Bon Jovi CD. They're just too good to be put in a vault somewhere for a "later" that never comes.

The titles are "Older," "Hush." "I Can Save the World," "Rich Man Living in a Poor Man's House," "Shadow Dancing," "Good Ain't Good Enough," "Stay," "Real Life," "I Got the Girl" (about Stephanie), "You Can't Lose at Love" and "Gimme Some." There were Pizza Jury sheets at every seat and we were asked to give our opinions of the songs, which I gladly and truthfully did. There was one song called "Crazy Love" that Jon had decided to not let us hear since it wasn't quite ready yet. To me, the best song was "You Can't Lose at Love." It's a ballad that left me with a feeling of hope. It ends with Jon repeating, "Take a chance on love." It has that spark of magic and reaching people that "Living on a Prayer" has. There were some songs that sounded more like These Days than Destination. Jon's voice was great, strong and clear on most of the songs. Some were played so loudly it was difficult to understand the lyrics over the music.

During the listening portion of the evening, we were served hors d'oeurves and mingled with one another. The hors d'oeuvres were stuffed mushrooms, filet mignon on garlic rounds, eggplant provencale, coconut shrimp, crabmeat empinadas, mini corned beef reuben, potato pancakes, brie en croute, chicken pinwheels, coquilles St. Jacques, and dates chorizo with bacon. During the mingling, Cheryl and I both had our pictures made with Mr. B. and Tony. I figured with Mr. B., at least I could still go home and say I had my picture taken with John Bongiovi. :-) Cheryl also approached Matthew, but he had such an air of arrogance about him, that I didn't care to approach him. Tony was nice and I wished him luck in his video directing and told him I'd seen a story on TNN about his directing the Chris Ledoux video. He's a lot cuter in person than in his pictures. Matt is attractive too, but neither of them were blessed with Jon's striking beauty (or his ass!).

Our main dinner included rolls and butter shaped like roses, a fresh fruit plate, and a fresh mesculn salad served with a walnut raspberry vinaigrette. Since Cheryl told me it wasn't "real" lettuce, I decided to try it and actually liked it. Our entrees were either Sliced Beef Wellington, Broiled Fillet of Flounder, or Chicken Francaisse. But by the time the dinners were served, the consensus at our table was "forget the food and bring out Jon!"

We were allowed to line up in front of the stage by table numbers. This was fair since the tables were assigned according to when your request came in. Only I wish I had sent mine in earlier. I'm not complaining too much though because I was right in front of Jon, even if it was several rows back. I saw his face for the entire show, so that's what counts. My pictures of the show are terrible though. I was stupid enough to follow the rules and not bring in my zoom lens camera. They didn't even check...

Jon was in a great mood and we got to see a glimpse of his humorous side. He seemed happy to be there and I could tell how touched he was whenever we started singing his lyrics louder and more accurately than he was. He took questions and some requests from the audience. It was the requests like "Ride Cowboy Ride" that threw his memory for a loop. He even commented that he wasn't as stupid as he looked. But I think he was happy anyway because he had this look of sheer delight that we could sing the songs so well. With no microphone in my face, I knew every word.

His set list was "Older," "Love for Sale," "Ride Cowboy Ride," "Midnight in Chelsea," "Living on a Prayer," "Destination Anywhere," "Ugly," "Bed of Roses," "These Days," and "Janie Don't Take Your Love to Town." All the songs sounded great. It was just Jon, Everitt Bradley, a keyboardist, a guitarist, and a violinist. I really enjoyed seeing an acoustic performance. Jon's voice was amazing. I love listening to him sing when that's the main thing you hear instead of music or background vocals louder than he is, the way it sometimes is for some songs at Bon Jovi shows.

As I said, he took questions from the audience. He said Dave was doing much better and that he had spoken to both Tico and Richie the day before. In fact, he said that he and Richie had spoken for hours. When he mentioned Richie moving to CA, Richie got a big round of boos and hisses which made Jon look a bit miffed, and he was quick to defend Richie. I hope that would convince any skeptics in the audience about Jon's devotion and loyalty to Richie. Even if they are different as night and day, they are true friends, first and foremost.

After the show, Father Bob took control and made everyone sit down (this was no easy task!). I really got annoyed with some of the people for not minding him. This is when we were treated to the biggest surprise of the evening: Jon went around to every table, taking time to speak, take pictures, and sign autographs. He really went above and beyond the call of duty. Meeting him was a true joy that I'll never forget. I only had a few seconds with him, but they were the most thrilling of my life, thus far. Jon was so nice, so obliging. He cares about his fans a lot and left no doubt about the magnitude of his gratefulness to us. I didn't get to say much, but I did get a hug and an autograph. I was so shocked to actually be standing next to my hero. I was fine while meeting him, perhaps my voice quivered a bit, but no passing out or anything. While waiting for him to come to our table, I felt a sort of strange numbness. I was perfectly calm knowing he was walking toward me and, yet, I squeal with excitement if I unexpectedly see him on television. The mind is an amazing thing!

A few of my penpals had asked for autographs or even for me to tell Jon about them. To be honest, I was kind of aggrevated by such requests. I mean, on the off chance that I had a moment with Jon, they basically wanted me to give it to them. I made no promises, foreseeing myself as dumbstruck. The funny thing is, in a way, I did give my moment to someone else. The father of one of my best friends had died the night before and knowing how much she loved Jon (exactly the way I do), I asked God to help me remember her if I met Jon and to get her an autograph. And I did.... I didn't tell Jon my own name, but I asked for an autograph for Sonya. I got exactly what I prayed for--next time I'm going to say a longer prayer!

If I didn't want to kick myself enough over not bringing in my zoom lens, I had another reason. I had brought my retired-design car liscense plate that says BONJOVI to NJ to take to the party to have Jon autograph it. I'm the only person with a MS tag that says BONJOVI, so that's one Bon Jovi item that is mine and mine alone. But, then I decided not to take it to the party since "I probably won't meet Jon anyway." Oh well....

Jon continued to make his way around the room for over two hours. I went out to the lounge to join Dawn and Pam. Mrs. B. stopped by our table and said hello and I had my picture taken with her too. She was really worried about Jon because he was tired before he even got to the party. He had just flown in from California that day. He looked exhausted by the time he left. She was in quite a dither though. She said she had no idea Jon was going to do this and she wished they had made it so he could have sat down and have everyone come to him instead of the other way around. I think she said, "He's exhausted!" a few times.

We got back from the party around 1:00 am. Since I had been up since 4:00 am, I was pretty exhausted myself and ready to get to bed. Though with all the excitement, I didn't sleep very well. I called my parents to let them know I had finally met Jon and to tell them about the party.

The club gave us a lot of merchandise in the party pack as well. We got a t-shirt, a cap, a cup, stationery, a pen, a promo CD single for "Queen of New Orleans," a video of the 1996 Christmas show, a balloon, sunglasses, and an autographed calendar. A lot of people complained about the $200 cost of the party, but I think it was worth every cent. They gave us merchandise that would have cost over $150 had we bought it and they could probably have set up a booth and sold it to us instead of preparing those packages. They were very generous and everything about the party went beyond my expectations. Best of all, I realized when I got back to the motel that I had managed to go for about 8 hours without thinking of any of my problems. Jon, as always, has given me joy.

Saturday, August 29, 1998

Saturday was a wonderful day all around. Thanks to Dawn and Pam, Yvonne and I were treated to the Bon Jovi tour of New Jersey. Susan and a girl named Diana went with us as well. Mrs. B. had told Dawn the night before that she would like to go with us, but she wound up not able to go. Too bad... it would have been fun to spend time with her. She did wish us all a great trip and told Dawn she had to go by Jon's new house to see it, even offered directions! Can you believe that?! Dawn didn't need directions, that's for sure. She really knows her way around Jersey!

First we saw Richie's old house and Jon's house in Rumson. The Rumson and Navasink area was really beautiful: quaint and exactly what I expected of New England. It was lush and green with willows and evergreens. I imagine it would be quite the portrait of Americana covered in snow at Christmastime.

I was really glad we did not see Jon at his house because I've never wanted to meet him that way. No offense to anyone who has met him there, but I would feel like an ass for invading his privacy, especially after the trouble he had gone to the night before. We got there, jumped out of the car, took a few pictures just to say, "I was there" and left in under two minutes! Then we went to Umberto's, the legendary restaurant. Sylvio, the owner was great. According to him, Jon and Dorothea are very nice and their children are very well behaved. Bruce Springsteen is nice too, but his wife, "the redhead" is a bitch. He had photos of Jon on the back wall. I guess he has a lot of Bon Jovi fans who stop there.

Then we went on to Jon's new house across the river from Rumson. It's acutally located right on the river and you can see the back of it as you cross the bridge. It is astounding! Huge!!! The location is wonderful and his yard is quite large compared to other homes in the area--kinda small to me though, though his house would make six of mine!

After Jon's new house, we went on to Sayreville to see the Amboy Motel, Jon's childhood home, and his high school. Mrs. B. said she hates the way the new owners of the old house have painted the shutters blue. It did look better before. But, there was yet another for sale sign in the yard! We also found out that Jon had built a library for his high school. It was a really nice addition, dated 1991. We joked that it was the Jon Bon Jovi Library. No, there wasn't a sign that said that, but we liked the sound of it. On the way back to Eatontown, we stopped by the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank. It was very tiny, a real hole in the wall. It's hard to imagine Bon Jovi actually playing there!

After the wonderful day spent with my Jovi sisters, it was my Aunt's turn to have some fun. We went to Atlantic City to the Taj Mahal so she could gamble a bit. I'm not really into gambling, so I decided to quit after I lost $20. But, Yvonne wanted to move on to another machine, so she told me to finish out her slot machine and I wound up winning $78. I knew we'd be there a while, so I blew $20 of that at a different game. That took about 38 seconds. I decided to quit while I was ahead, so I went to look around the casino and buy gifts for my family. When Yvonne finished gambling, we went out to the shore and I gathered some sea shells. I would like to have seen the shore in the daylight, but it was beautiful at night. We went by the Hard Rock Cafe (it joins the Taj Mahal) and I took a picture of the Bon Jovi section of the wall. We also walked down the boardwalk just to check it out. About 11:30, we headed back to Eatontown.

Sunday, August 30, 1998